[Math] Reference request: an elementary proof of Brouwer fixed-point theorem.

differential-topologyfixed-point-theoremsreference-request

One of the elementary way to prove of the Brouwer fixed-point theorem is, making it follow from the (smooth) Non-Retraction theorem. The latter is then proven by contradiction by means of a simple computation on the "oriented area" of smooth mappings $g:B\subset \mathbb {R}^n\rightarrow\mathbb {R}^n$
$$\int_B \operatorname{det} D g(x) dx$$

and only involves a differentiation under the sign of integral with respect to the parameter of deformation (I mentioned this proof in this wiki-article) . Due to this fact, I sometimes like to use it in elementary courses as a meaningful application of differential calculus and Lebesgue integration (on the other hand, the geometrical ideas behind remain a bit hidden, but that is an other story).

However, a slight annoyance to me now is, that I can't remember where I read this proof the first time, several years ago. I would be very glad to learn a reference, and (if it is known) the name of the inventor of this nice proof.

Best Answer

There is a completely elementary and very elegant proof of the Brower fixed point theorem based on a beautiful combinatorial result called Sperner lemma. For details I recommend Section 2.3, page 72 of the beautiful book

V.V. Prasolov: Elements of Combinatorial and Differential Topology, Graduate Studies in Mathematics, vol. 74, Amer. Math. Soc., 2006

The proof is constructive and it leads to an algorithm for generating a sequence of points converging to a fixed point of the map. Prasolov attributes this approach to

B. Kuratowski, C. Knaster, C. Mazurkiewicz: Ein Beweis des Fixpunktsatz fur n-dimensionale Simplexe, Funt. Math. 14(1929), 132-137.

Note This does not really answer your question.

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